The 4 Key Ingredients To Building A Brand, Part 5: The Chef

Brand development is an exercise of examining what the brand is and is not, and then codifying the discoveries in a way that the brand owner(s) and stakeholder(s) can easily leverage to grow the brand.

Here are what I know to be the second of the 4 key ingredients for building a brand:

Part 5: The Chef

These 4 ingredients are key to brand development, but there is a 5th element (love that movie…) that needs to be mentioned as well: A chef (aka, guide, shepherd) to help work through the process of brand development.

That would be me, what I do.

Having a guide for brand development is obviously important from an expertise level. We use experts for anything, from HVAC service to CPAs to facility maintenance and, yes, brand development.

Yet a guide is also important because having a mind from outside the brand will give the development process the perspective it needs to be successful.

I’m sure you’ve heard a presentation, ad, or promo for a brand that uses language that leaves you wondering, “What did they just say?” This is because they have too many in-house people working on the brand. There’s no outside perspective and push-back to help the brand communicate in a way that makes sense to people outside of the brand.

When I and my team help develop a brand, it’s always a collaborative process. It makes no sense for us to walk in and tell the stakeholders what a brand is. The process demands collaboration, and to-date, we have had nothing but success.

After the process, those we work with have a fully-developed brand that they believe in and are energized to grow.

Whether you hire me and my team, or any other creative “chefs,” you need to know how to get the best work from these unique branding experts. I’ve written a set of short, easy to understand tips on how to do just that as a follow-up to this series. Read about the 5 ways to get the best work from your creative team here.

Let’s talk – maybe even today? – so we can discuss how to develop your new or existing brand.

Author Dan Crask

Hello - I'm Dan Crask. I help brands discover who they are, then express it visually. I co-own Brand Shepherd, am a husband, father of four children, and I don't believe in a work/life balance - it's all life, and all of it matters.